Data storage devices are used to access digital data in a fast and efficient manner. With the proliferation of data storage devices being employed in consumer electronics devices, it is now not unusual for a remote host to access different data within a data storage device in completely different ways. Generally, two types of data can be categorized as being either normal computer data or audio/visual (A/V) data.
Normal computer data is accessed in a more traditional way, whereby the content of the data itself is essential to successfully executing the computer processes, tracking the processes, and reporting results of the processes. For this reason, each bit of normal computer data is potentially critical to the operational flow of the computer process. Normal data is commonly referred to as “reliability-critical” type of data for this reason.
On the other hand, A/V data relates to computer readable information that when executed produces audio signals and/or video signals through a speaker or a monitor. The performance with which this type of a continuous stream of a large volume data can be read as a single command is fundamentally more important than its bit-by-bit accuracy. That is, if some of the audio/visual data is in error, the error can usually be passed on to the host without noticeable corruption of the audio/video signal, at least in comparison to the delays that would otherwise occur were the A/V data scrutinized the same as normal data. For this reason A/V data is commonly referred to as “time-critical” data.
It is becoming prevalent that the host must access both reliability-critical and time-critical data from a common storage space. Having both types of data stored in a common storage space not only makes host accesses problematic, but also creates challenges to the way the data storage device manages background data integrity operations in order to preserve the integrity of the data and access to it. What is needed is a straightforward way of altering the behavior by which the data integrity operations are performed in relation to how the host accesses the data. It is to these improvements that the embodiments of the present invention are directed.